In a weekly word-puzzle I enjoy, the solution is a quotation, along with the name of the author and work. Today's quotation was right on our subjects.
Ms. is now widely accepted though the word makes no etymological sense and is unprnounceable, but is godsend to junk mailers who no longer worry about whether a woman on their list is married or not. - Willard Espy, Words at Play
I think Ms. is easy to prounounce; you just say Mizz. It doesn't need a period, right? I have seen it both ways, and dictionary.com indicates it can be both ways. It isn't an abbreviation, like "missus" or "mister," so I don't see why we should use a period.
Quote, "...It isn't an abbreviation, like "missus" or "mister," so I don't see why we should use a period..."
Two points.
1. In UK English we don't use a full stop at the end of any abbreviation which ends with the same letter as does the abbreviated word. So Mr and Dr but Co. and Conc.
2. I haven't checked but I heard once that Ms is and abbreviation for "Mistress" - a name that was given to ladies of any marital status back in days of yore. Shakespeare certainly used it.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
Ms is also splendidly insulting to certain people. Choose the right person, refer to them as Ms, and they will react as if you just called them some kind of communist lesbian.
It's easy to pronounce, and it's useful. It's also been in common usage for about three decades. And a guy whose name is Willard oughtn't to make fun of others. But he's dead now, so I'll cut him some slack. Also, the book the quotation is taken from was published in 1979. From the titles of some of his other books, I see he was a foe of linguistic reason. I would've loved to've called his mother, sister, or wife Ms.
About junk mailers (who have expanded their practices to email/blog spam and phone solicitation), I don't see that they ever cared who got their noxious missives.
And a guy whose name is Willard oughtn't to make fun of others. Good point, jheem!
As for periods in abbreviations, we seem to use them more in the U.S. than you Brits do. It would seem a bit of a pain to have to think, "Now, does the abbreviation end with the same letter as the word?" Yet, we in the U.S. aren't very consistent. Sometimes you see USA, and other times you see U.S.A. BTW, Richard, would you write it U.SA since 'United' doesn't end in 'U,' but 'States' ends in 'S' and 'America' ends in 'A?'
Good point, jheem!
